Two flowers per seed:Derivatives of CoG@F127/GO with enhanced catalytic performance of overall water splitting

In this work,cobalt glycerate(CoG@F127)nanosheets grown on the surface of graphene oxide(GO),i.e.CoG@F127/GO,have been synthesized with the assistance of nonionic surfactant Pluronic F127 via a hydrothermal method.After calcination,CoG@F127/GO is transformed into one derivative,Co nanoparticles coated with a trace amount of carbon(Co-C)on GO(Co-C/GO).The Co nanoparticles consist of an atypical core-shell structure,in which the core and the shell are both Co.Co-C anchored on GO can avoid the nanoparticles aggregation and expose more active sites for hydrogen evolution reaction(HER)to significantly improve the catalyst activity of HER.CoG@F127/GO is phosphatized to form the other derivate,cobalt pyrophosphate coated with a small amount of carbon(Co₂P₂O₇-C)on GO(Co₂P₂O₇-C/GO).Co₂P₂O₇-C/GO composite owns a large electrochemical active surface area(ECSA)and fast rate towards oxygen evolution reaction(OER).Furthermore,the two derivatives of CoG@F127/GO,i.e.Co-C/GO and Co₂P₂O₇-C/GO as twin flowers,are assembled into an overall water splitting electrolytic cell with a cell voltage of 1.56 V to deliver a current density of 10 mA cm^-2.